After taking a brief pause in releasing Windows 11 preview builds, Microsoft is back with an absolutely massive update. Windows 11 build 22557 contains many exciting features, such as a brand-new Task Manager. Apart from offering more modern looks and dark mode support (finally!), the new Task Manager has another neat trick in its sleeves: Efficiency Mode.
Efficiency Mode is a new feature in Task Manager that allows Windows 11 users to throttle down resource-hogging apps. You can enable Efficiency Mode at any moment to reclaim lost performance and reassign resources to more critical tasks without killing a "heavy" process. Efficiency Mode will also come in handy when you need to prolong your laptop's battery life.
It is worth mentioning that Efficiency Mode is not a system-wide feature. You can apply it to specific apps and processes in Task Manager on the Processes tab using the "Efficiency Mode" button on the command bar (another new feature in the redesigned Task Manager). Throttled-down apps will have a leaf icon, and suspended processes will appear with a pause icon.
Windows 11 will let you enable Efficiency Mode to individual processes, not groups. Also, mission-critical and core Windows processes will be grayed out to prevent performance drops and instabilities.
Unlike the new Task Manager, Efficiency Mode in Windows 11 is not available for all Windows Insiders right away. Microsoft is rolling it out gradually to monitor feedback and see how the feature works.
Task Manager is not the only Windows part with Efficiency Mode. Last year, Microsoft introduced Efficiency Mode for the Edge browser to minimize power usage and extend battery life by reducing resource consumption.
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